I am in search for a Canadian health centre willing to accept a visitor from abroad.

Russian human rights defender Larisa Arap has been confined to a psychiatric hospital and badly treated for months after she took part in disclosing punitive practices in the Murmansk psychiatric hospitals (Wikipedia, Larisa Arap).[1]

Yelena Vasilyeva, a colleague of Larisa, asks if a foreign hospital would be willing to assess Arap's health (evasiljeva, August 14, 2007).[2] It may be possible to let Arap out of the hospital in Apatity on receiving such invitation.

Arap has become a victim of intentional beatings. Arap said, according to Vasilyeva,

You know, Lena, these savages, 4 men [nurses], went on undressing me. They pushed me into an ice cold shower and said, "We will cure your spine, we will take you to the violent ones in the men's department"... And then they beat me... for a long time... and tied me, stretching my arms and legs aside. Do you understand, how they beat me naked? And then these scary injections...

Arap's doctors moved her to the department of violent patients. Vasilyeva says article 29, paragraph 3 of the Russian law on psychiatric care limits involuntary confinement to those who present danger, which is not the case with Arap.

Update, August 20: Arap is harmed but free, thanks to her colleagues, supporters and relatives.

Journalist Ildar Isangulov reminds that a criminal gang member's testimony against Igor Izmestyev, a Bashkir representative in Russia's Upper House, can hardly be credible. The "Putin attack" suspect Alexander Pumane beaten to death by Moscow criminal investigators [1][2] was later linked to the same gang. The journalist asks if the gang members were threatened with a similar treatment and forced to give a false testimony against Izmestyev.

Just as a prominent poet Ilya Kormiltsev, I can't wait to see a dance floor in place of Kremlin.

An old time dissident Vladimir Bukovsky recognized the disadvantage of concentrating all-Russia rule in one place and suggested to decentralize the federal system should he become a president.

No wonder Vladimir Sorokin, the author of Oprichnik's Day, favoured Bukovsky's candidacy. I agree with Sorokin's point that the tyrannical past has returned. The good Kremlin is the dance floor Kremlin.

It was not until this week that an amendment to a Russian law on burying and funeral arrangements came into a light. According to Novaya Gazeta, Putin signed the amendment suggested by Duma one month after the Dubrovka hostage taking. The amendment prohibits from returning the bodies of those who were killed "as a result of interception of their terrorist activity". The location of the burials is also a secret.

According to Alexander Podrabinek, such amendment makes it impossible to find the exact cause of death and avoid falsification.

On June 28, 2007 Russian Constitutional Court confirmed the amendment.

I've prepared myself to a paper-free world: I am now a proud owner of a bidet add-on, thanks to South Korean and US innovators.

The manual was puzzling just as many other do-it-yourself guides. I figured the metal-insulated flexible hose was to replace the existing pipe connecting the cold water line with the toilet bowl. This is to allow an extra T-valve between the line and the bowl.

The narrow plastic tube was long enough to be cut in two pieces. The short half-a-meter piece connected the bidet with the new cold water T-valve. The longer three-meter piece reached the hot water line under the sink. Using the supplied clamp, I pierced the hot water tap pipe and stuck the plastic tube.

I was afraid to drill any holes in the sink closet. My prudence was rewarded: the plastic tube bent around the corners well, and the closet door's gap was small.

The manual did not say that only the connecting pipe, which was part of the tap, should be pierced, not the line carrying water to it. I guess it will be easier to replace the tap or its part rather than to plug the line when we move.

The model I chose required both cold and hot water supplies. It relied on the existing water pressure and did not need electricity. First tests gave expectedly unexpected sensations, and I found the jet razor sharp. Ouch!